Posts in category Atlas Agena

Launch Complex 14 is one of the more historically important complexes at Cape Canaveral. It was from here that the USAF’s first Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) , and where the first American to orbit the Earth were launched.

SLC-14 was used for the early Mercury missions, with the mercury spaceship propelled into space on-top of Atlas D rocket boosters. This site was also used for Pioneer, Midas, Gemini and TDA missions.

The first rocket flown from LC-14 was on Jun 11th 1957, since then 32 launches were made until the final launch on November 11th 1966. The pad was operated by both USAF and NASA during this period.

The most prestigious flight from this pad was on February 20th 1962 when Mercury 6 call sign “Friendship 7″ launched John Glen Jr into orbit. An issue with one of the automatic systems required Glen to take over manual control of part of the flight.

Fast forward to 1984 when the Launch Complex 14 and the gantry on LC-13 were declared National Historic Monuments, only for the LC-13 gantry to corrode to such an extent that it had to be demolished in 2005. In 1997 the 45th Space Wing of the USAF started restoration of LC-14, which resulted in the blockhouse and surrounding concrete apron being restored, but the launch pad itself is fenced off.

At the entrance to the Launch Complex 14 there is a Titanium sculpture of the Mercury symbol and several memorials commemorating the Mercury Project. There is also a time capsule recording the project to be opened in the year 2464.

The evolution of the Space Launch Complexes took another leap forwards with LC-13. Launch Complex 13 was the first of the launch sites at Cape Canaveral to have an integral loading ramp.

The loading ramp was designed so that the rocket could be delivered to the launch pad on a low loader which was reversed up the ramp. Once in place the rocket was erected and the transport removed. The loading ramp cannot be seen from the view to the left as it is behind the rocket and the umbilical gantry. See below for a modern image of the ramp.

This complex is the first to have a lot of infrastructure actually built into the launch pad, a lot of which still survives today. Interestingly there are a pair of aluminium doors leading into work areas that flap around in the breeze today.

Between February 1962 and October 1963 the pad was converted for use by the Atlas-Agena rockets. The modifications to the pad were more extensive than the conversions of LC-12 and LC-14, with the mobile service tower being demolished and replaced with a new, larger tower.

As can be seen from the image to the left LC-13 had a huge service structure that was mounted on a twin rail system. The service structure was rolled back for launch into the position that this image was taken from.

From its first launch on August 2 1958 until the last launch on April 7 1978 52 rockets were launched from LC-13. The USAF operated the site until 1966 when it was turned over to NASA for 6 flights before being returned to the USAF .

Heading northbound on ICBM Road from SLC-11 is SLC-12. Again this pad supported launches of Atlas rockets in the form of Atlas, Atlas Able and Atlas Agena. The pad saw it’s first launch January 10th 1958 with a successful flight of the forth Atlas rocket launched from Cape Canaveral.

November 5th 1967 saw the last flight of an Atlas Agena successfully launching the ATS-3 communications satellite. This filled out 38 flights from the launch pad.

LC-12 was used for a number of missions/spacecraft including the Pioneer and Ranger Lunar programs, the Mariner Planetary probes, along with OGO, OAO and ATS satellite missions.

On September 24th 1959 an Atlas Able failed spectacularly during a static test when the first stage failed and the rocket exploded on the launch pad. The payload of P-1 spacecraft and Able IV space engine was not present on the launch vehicle when it exploded.

This explosion highlighted the need for the protection provided for the ground staff by blockhouses. www.astronautix.com quotes a member of the ground staff as saying “I worked for the ARMA Corp that developed the Atlas Inertial Guidance System. I was in the Blockhouse at Complex 11 while a static test was performed on an Atlas Able on Complex 12. It did explode. Did it ever! After a couple of hours the six of us were allowed out of the blockhouse and saw all the damage to our complex…“.READ MORE »

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